David Cameron, who had admitted that the relationship between Tory and Lib Dem ministers will change. Photograph: Ho/Reuters

David Cameron has admitted that a change in the coalition relationship is "inevitable" after tensions surfaced in the run-up to last week's elections and AV referendum.

But the prime minister stressed his commitment to the coalition as Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers prepared to meet across the cabinet table for the first time since the Lib Dems suffered severe losses in the local elections and saw voting reform decisively rejected by the public.

In an interview with the Sun, Cameron insisted he was still committed to a five-year term in coalition to deliver a "very strong" programme.

He said the coalition government had "chalked up a lot of achievements", adding: "The challenge for the next period is going to be – how do you have two parties perhaps wanting to make their voices heard more clearly, but still achieve that coherence?

"I think the Lib Dem top team and the Conservative top team will still work together very well. But that is going to be the challenge.

"There will be more noise, there will be more debate, there will be more public airing of differences. I think that is inevitable."

Cameron also denied Lib Dem claims that he had betrayed the spirit of the coalition by allowing the No to AV campaign to attack Nick Clegg's broken promises, but admitted that he ended up playing a "greater part" than he had first anticipated when it became clear it was going to be a much more political campaign.

The dire election results for the Liberal Democrats – in contrast to a stronger than expected performance for the Conservatives in the local elections alongside a resounding win for the retention of first past the post in the referendum – did little to improve relations.

Defending his role in the referendum campaign, he told the Sun: "If I had gone in and told them 'you can do this and you can't do that', the whole thing would have broken up acrimoniously."

Asked whether he had ever promised Clegg that he would not campaign strongly against AV, Cameron said: "No. I wanted Conservative party supporters, who at the start were a little uncertain about what they thought about AV, to be clear about what my view was. But the bosses – the British people – have made their decision, and I think we should now move on."

Clegg has signalled his intent to demonstrate more Lib Dem muscle as deputy prime minister, notably on the Conservative-led NHS reforms.

He has threatened to veto the reforms unless they are substantially improved as part of attempts to reassert his party's independence after last week's events.

Cameron also used his interview to signal that there would be no reshuffle this year, saying: "I'm not a great believer in endlessly moving people between different jobs. I like to think I have put in a good team of Conservative and Liberal Democrats and they've a lot of work to do."

He criticised predecessors Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for creating insecurity by making constant team changes.

"We had 12 energy ministers in nine years," he said. "And the tourism minister changed more often than people got off planes at Heathrow. It was hopeless. I think you've got to try to appoint good people and keep them."

Downing Street said that on the eve of the coalition marking a year in power, more than a quarter of the commitments in the coalition agreement have been met.

A spokesman said that, of the 355 commitments in the overall coalition agreement, more than a quarter – 26% – had already been completed, 64% were in progress and 10% had yet to be started.

No 10 also released figures showing that, of 1,276 specific "actions" set out in the business plans of individual government departments for completion within the first year, 66% had been completed, 31% were in progress and 3% were overdue.

About this article

Change in coalition relationship inevitable, says David Cameron

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 10.46 EDT on Tuesday 10 May 2011.
It was last modified at 05.30 EDT on Tuesday 20 May 2014.
It was first published at 05.06 EDT on Tuesday 10 May 2011.